After five years of legal proceedings and a few bizarre twists, jury selection begins today for the trial of a man accused of fatally shooting his wife and three children in an SUV.

Christopher Vaughn of Oswego is charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of four family members on June 14, 2007. Authorities allege he pulled the vehicle onto a frontage road near Channahon -- about 40 miles southwest of Chicago -- and shot Kimberly Vaughn and children, Abigayle, 12, Cassandra, 11, and Blake, 8.

Vaughn, 37, was arrested at a funeral home in suburban St. Louis hours before a memorial service for his wife and children. He pleaded not guilty and insists the killings were at the hands of his wife.

Christopher Vaughn is accused of murdering his wife and children with a shotgun on the side of the road in 2007

The legal drama builds this week at the Will County Courthouse as two high-profile murder cases are tried in courtrooms next to each other.

Former Bolingbrook police sergeant Drew Peterson's trial enters its third week on Tuesday, and jury selection begins Monday in the trial of Christopher Vaughn. In both cases the husbands are accused of murdering their wives.

August 13, 2012 (JOLIET, Ill.) (WLS) -- Jury selection begins in the trial of a Will County man charged with killing his wife and three children.

Christopher Vaughn, 37, has been behind bars in Will County since 2007.

Vaughn claims the family was on the way to a water park in Springfield on June 14, 2007 when he pulled over along Interstate 55 in Channahon. He said he went to fix luggage in the SUV, got back in the car, and his wife started shooting him and then his kids. Vaughn said he ran off, and when he got back to the vehicle, he claims his wife shot their three kids and then shot herself.

Christopher Vaughn leaves the Will County Courthouse in June. | Matt Marton~Sun-Times Media

Five years after the bodies of Kimberly Vaughn and her three children were found in an SUV off Interstate 55, Christopher Vaughn is set to stand trial in the deaths.

Blake Vaughn, 8; Christopher Vaughn, 32; Cassandra Vaughn, 11; Kimberly Vaughn 34; and Abigayle Vaughn, 12; smile in their Oswego home. Kimberly Vaughn and the three children were found shot to death in the family SUV in 2007. | Submitted photo

The 37-year-old Oswego man is accused of murdering his wife and three children ­— 12-year-old Abigayle, 11-year-old Cassandra and 8-year-old Blake — and then claiming Kimberly Vaughn actually did the shooting.

His trial is to kick off Monday morning in Joliet before Will County Judge Daniel Rozak.

The Vaughn children bundled themselves in blankets and pillows, settling into the back of mom and dad’s SUV for a surprise early morning roadtrip to a water park on a late spring morning.

Eleven-year-old Cassandra sat in the middle. Twelve-year-old Abigayle sat behind her father on the driver’s side. She clutched a stuffed animal and a Harry Potter book. Her little brother, 8-year-old Blake, sat behind his mother, Kimberly, on the other side of the car.

They dressed for summer. Mom too. But not Christopher Vaughn. He wore cowboy boots, blue jeans and a fleece jacket. Prosecutors said he’d quietly dreamt of isolation in Canada. On that morning of June 14, 2007, as his children imagined a day at the water park, prosecutors said Christopher Vaughn’s thoughts turned to his escape from life in suburban Chicago.

Vaughn gathered his family together around 4 o’clock that morning, they said. The children buckled up, and Vaughn guided their Ford Expedition south on Interstate 55. But soon, after he passed up nearby restaurants and gas stations as rest stops, prosecutors said Vaughn decided to get off on Bluff Road and turn south onto a secluded frontage road. He pulled into a path near a cell phone tower, and he got out of the car.

As his family lay shot dead in their Ford Expedition, one daughter clutching a stuffed animal and a Harry Potter novel, Christopher Vaughn was at a hospital complaining about investigators ruining his cowboy boots, prosecutors said Monday.

Prosecutors painted the Oswego man, who is on trial for the 2007 slayings of his wife and three children, as a heartless husband and indifferent father who spent thousands of dollars at strip clubs and yearned to leave his dull suburban life behind.

Christopher Vaughn is accused of killing his wife and three children in 2007. (Credit: Will County Sheriff’s Office)

Opening statements are scheduled to begin in the trial of a former St. Peters man accused of fatally shooting his wife and their three children.

A jury of four women and eight men will decide the fate of Christopher Vaughn, who's on trial in Will County, Illinois. The jury was picked last week, and prosecutors and the defense will begin making their cases today.

Vaughn is accused in the June 14, 2007, killings of his wife, Kimberly, and their three children _ 12-year-old Abigayle, 11-year-old Cassandra and 8-year-old Blake.

1994 • Kimberly and Christopher Vaughn, who both grew up in St. Charles County, get married.

1999 • The couple and their three children move into a new subdivision in St. Peters.

2001 • The family moves to Sammamish, Wash., near Seattle, where he starts a computer security company.

2005 • The family moves to the Chicago area to go to work for Navigant Consulting's computer forensics group.

June 14, 2007 • The bodies of Kimberly Vaughn, 34, and her three children — Abigayle, 12, Cassandra, 11, and Blake, 8 — are found in the family's SUV on a service road near Interstate 55 in Channahon, Ill.

June 23, 2007 • Police arrest Christopher Vaughn, 32, just hours before the funeral service in St. Charles County. He is charged with murder.

June 24, 2007 1:20 pm • By Susan Weich and Aisha Sultan of the Post-Dispatch

Just hours before the memorial service Saturday for his wife and three children, Christopher Vaughn of suburban Chicago was arrested here in the fatal shootings of all four victims in the family's SUV.

Illinois investigators initially said Vaughn, 32, was not a suspect in the June 14 killings. He had told police that his wife was the one who had wielded the gun.

Police kept mum for days, searching the Vaughn home, ordering forensic tests and seizing computer equipment from the family's home near Chicago.

And as relatives prepared for a private, morning burial here Saturday, police arrested Vaughn at 7:50 a.m. at the Baue Funeral and Memorial Center.

◆ Prosecutors played a recording of the 911 call placed by John Speer of Bolingbrook after he discovered Christopher Vaughn limping and bloody on the frontage road near Interstate 55 on June 14, 2007. Speer asked for an ambulance, said Vaughn had been shot, and said Vaughn’s wife “took off” with the kids in the car.

◆ The paramedics who treated Vaughn said he didn’t ask about the welfare of his wife or his children. He only insisted they be careful not to damage his cowboy boots. He later complained at the hospital about damage to his leather jacket from Canada.

◆ Prosecutors asked Judge Daniel Rozak to limit the testimony of Illinois State Police investigator Robert Deel. Deel was the primary crime scene investigator in the Vaughn murders as well as the case of Drew Peterson, who is also on trial in Joliet for his third wife’s murder.

◆ THURSDAY: Nurses and doctors who treated Vaughn are expected to testify, as well as a man from a shooting range Vaughn visited the night before the shootings. Lawyers likely will also argue about Deel’s testimony.

Vaughn trial hears from stripper, told of shooting practice the day before killings

By Jason Meisner, Chicago Tribune reporterAugust 24, 2012

In the days before his wife and children were fatally shot, Christopher Vaughn dropped thousands of dollars at a strip club, staying out until early morning both times, and twice took target practice at a gun range, according to testimony Thursday at Vaughn's murder trial.

Will County jurors also heard about dozens of emails written by Vaughn's wife that portrayed her as a thoughtful woman who had an uneasiness about guns, cherished her relationship with her husband and was busy balancing school while raising their three children.

Christopher Vaughn, of Oswego, accused of fatally shooting his wife and three children in 2007, goes on trial. Prosecutors say Vaughn shot his wife and three children to death after pulling off Interstate 55 near Channahon in Will County on the way to what he said was a last-minute trip to a Springfield water park. In videotaped interviews with police, Vaughn said his wife of 13 years was upset over his religious beliefs and because he had recently told her he had cheated on her during a 2006 business trip to Mexico.

Vaughn is accused of murdering his wife and their three children inside the family's SUV.

Sergeant Robert Deel, an Illinois state trooper, described the scene investigators found after the fatal shootings. Jurors reviewed dozens of pieces of gruesome evidence collected by Sergeant Deel.

Read more:

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=8785795

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Christopher Vaughn Trial: Day 5

BY JON SEIDEL AND ERIKA WURST Staff Reporters August 24, 2012 7:46PM

Updated: August 25, 2012 2:12AM

Christopher Vaughn

◆ Illinois State Police Sgt. Robert Deel showed jurors several pieces of physical evidence recovered from the scene of the Vaughn family’s shooting deaths, including the red-and-white plaid shirt worn by Kimberly Vaughn when she died. Jurors also saw the clothing Christopher Vaughn wore that day and the gun found in his family’s red Ford Expedition.

◆ Jurors saw even more photographs taken of the Vaughn family’s SUV. A Mickey Mouse tissue box could be seen on the floor of the back seat, and a copy of “Charlotte’s Web” can be seen in a seat pocket in front of where 8-year-old Blake Vaughn was sitting.

As his murder trial began in earnest this week, Vaughn’s lawyer told the jury his client is “monotone.” He’s an introvert with one speed.

But when Illinois State Police Sgt. Robert Deel held up the shirt Kimberly Vaughn wore when she died of a gunshot wound under her chin, Vaughn seemed to swallow hard. He fidgeted in his seat as Deel pulled out Kimberly’s light-colored shorts.

And for a fleeting moment, Vaughn appeared to fight a subtle sob.

He swiftly returned to his calm, quiet composure, though, and he turned his attention to the notes on his desk. He and the jury spent much of Friday afternoon looking at a pile of physical evidence gathered from his family’s SUV — including the gun police found between Kimberly’s feet.

When the second week of Christopher Vaughn’s murder trial kicks off Monday afternoon, testimony is expected to include video footage of an Illinois State Police investigator’s interview with Vaughn in the wake of the shooting deaths of Vaughn’s wife and three children.

Vaughn is on trial for the murder of his 34-year-old wife, Kimberly, and their three children: 12-year-old Abigayle, 11-year-old Cassandra and 8-year-old Blake. Police found their bodies June 14, 2007, in the family’s red Ford Expedition after Vaughn flagged down a passing motorist.

Prosecution to play videotaped interview of Vaughn in family slaying trial

By Jason Meisner Tribune reporter 12:15 p.m. CDT, August 27, 2012

~Snipped~

Vaughn’s attorneys have blamed his wife, saying she was distraught over troubles in her marriage and killed the children, wounded Vaughn, then committed suicide.

The videotaped interview took place shortly after Vaughn was released from the hospital and taken to the police station. Prosecutors have said that during the 12 hours Vaughn was at the station, he insisted he had only a vague recollection of what happened in the SUV.

Prosecutors plan to show jurors lengthy footage of some of Vaughn’s interview.

Vaughn was released without charges later that day. He was arrested about a week later when he arrived for the family’s funeral in the St. Louis area.

◆ Illinois State Police Sgt. Gary Lawson testified about interviewing Vaughn hours after his wife and children were found shot to death on June 14, 2007. Prosecutors played videotaped portions of the interview for jurors.

◆ A co-worker of Vaughn’s, Allan Hsu, who talked about a night out with Vaughn during a business trip to Utah less than two weeks before the Vaughn family was killed. Hsu said he headed back to the hotel at 1 a.m. after a night of drinking, but Vaughn stayed out until 5 a.m.

◆ Also testifying Monday was Abby Keller, a crime scene investigator for the Illinois State Police. Keller helped Sgt. Robert Deel, who was the lead crime scene investigator for the Vaughn shootings. Keller admitted investigators should have taken more pictures of the SUV where the bodies were found once it was moved to the morgue.

◆ TUESDAY: Jurors will hear more of the taped statements Vaughn made to investigators after the shootings.

Just hours after his family was found shot and killed on a desolate frontage road in Channahon, Vaughn came face to face with investigators who were eager to find out what happened. Prosecutors played a video of that meeting Monday as the second week of Vaughn’s murder trial kicked off.

August 28, 2012 (JOLIET, Ill.) (WLS) -- For the second day in a row, jurors in the murder trial of Christopher Vaughn watched videotapes of the defendant being interviewed by police about the murders of his wife and three children.

Five years ago, Vaughn's family was shot to death inside their SUV near Channahon. Vaughn was spotted by a passing motorist on I-55. He was bleeding from his arm and leg.

Cop to Christopher Vaughn: ‘Not a soul on this Earth that believes you’

By ERIKA WURST AND JON SEIDEL Sun-Times Media August 28, 2012 6:36AM

Updated: August 28, 2012 9:02PM

The faces of Christopher Vaughn’s three dead children stared up at their father from the desk in the tiny interrogation room.

An Illinois State Police special agent slid their photos in front of the Oswego man while he tried again to explain how his family’s dead, bloody bodies wound up in the family SUV that day in June 2007.

Vaughn had no answers. None that would satisfy Sgt. Gary Lawson or special agents Cornelious Monroe and Eileen Payonk. They grilled him for hours in front of a video camera.

And at the end of a long, blistering and sometimes profane marathon of questioning, their patience was gone.

“You don’t know s---, right?” Monroe said.

“You realize your family died today?” Payonk said. “These beautiful, beautiful little babies died today. They were just slaughtered.”

Christopher Vaughn leaned forward in his chair at the end of another long police interview the day after his family’s deaths.

Investigators urged him for hours to “fill in the gaps” as they tried to understand why they found his wife, Kimberly, and three small children dead in the family SUV on June 14, 2007. By now they’d given him a chance to rest and change his clothing, and they’d abandoned the aggressive interrogation that already prompted Vaughn to crumple up photos of his children.

This time the two cops tried a new approach — bonding with Vaughn over troubled marriages. And that led the reluctant Oswego man to give up a few more details.

Once again, Vaughn told them how he pulled his red Ford Expedition onto a frontage road west of Interstate 55 and south of Bluff Road during an early morning road trip to Springfield. And again he told them how he got out after parking near a cell phone tower to check the rooftop luggage carrier before returning to the driver’s seat.

After more than 12 hours of sitting in a windowless room while police interrogated him in the shooting deaths of his wife and three children, Christopher Vaughn finally had enough and asked to leave.

~Snipped~

A weary and disheveled Vaughn, whose family had been slain earlier that day, asked if he was under arrest. Told he wasn't, he asked the investigators to unlock the door so he could leave and get some sleep.

"I've said what I'm going to say," Vaughn said in a barely audible voice.

But Cornelius Monroe, a burly special agent with the Illinois State Police, said he still had some more questions and started to slide the photos closer to Vaughn. When Vaughn pushed them away, Monroe screamed, "Do not touch my (expletive) pictures, dude!"

Vaughn grabbed the photo of his 8-year-old son, Blake, crumpled it up and threw it in the corner. Monroe rose quickly to his feet, flipping his chair over in the process, and came around the table to stand chest-to-chest in front of Vaughn, who had stood up as well. The detective dared him to leave.

In a second day of taped interviews shown to the jury at Vaughn's murder trial, the Oswego man changes his story and recalls that his wife fired a gun at him.

By Karen SorensenAugust 29, 2012 7:56 pm

Head in his hands, Christopher Vaughn faced the floor, spoke in a barely audible voice and told investigators what he thought they wanted to hear: Yes, his wife shot him.

In the second day of videotaped evidence presented at Vaughn's Will County murder trial, the jury was able to observe the Oswego man as he appeared on June 15, 2007, the day after his wife, Kimberly, 34, and his children, Abigayle, 12, Cassandra, 11, and Blake, 8, were found shot in the family's SUV.

Vaughn, then 32, had undergone a grueling 14 hours of interviews with Illinois State Police detectives the previous day, dressed in the hospital gown he was given after being treated for gun shot injuries he received to his left wrist and thigh. Throughout those conversations, he spoke in a subdued monotone.

One day after telling police he couldn't remember what had happened in the family's SUV when his wife and three children were fatally shot, Christopher Vaughn told investigators a different story, according to the videotaped interrogation played today for the jury at his murder trial.

Vaughn said that after he had pulled over the vehicle because wife Kimberly was ill, he got out and walked around the SUV. When he got back in, he said, his wife "had a gun in my face."

"I put my hand up," said Vaughn, sitting in a tiny interview room with two detectives while wearing khaki shorts, a blue polo shirt and sandals. He said he heard a bang and felt pain in his leg, stumbled out of the SUV and flagged down a passing motorist.

Christopher Vaughn's defense attorney George Lenard returns to the Will County Courthouse in Joliet after lunch Wednesday. (Michael Tercha, Chicago Tribune / August 29, 2012)

By Jason Meisner, Chicago Tribune reporterAugust 30, 2012

Christopher Vaughn had his head down in silence for a lengthy period before he drew a breath and starting talking, telling police in a voice barely above a whisper how his wife had shot him in their SUV while their three children slept in the back seat.

"I got back in the truck and I looked over at Kim and I think she — I think she had a gun," Vaughn said haltingly in a video of the police interview played Wednesday at his murder trial. "It doesn't — right in my face and I put my hand up and everything kind of went numb."

Vaughn's account was a sudden turn of events for police who had spent hours grilling him in the first two days after the early morning shootings of his wife and children on June 14, 2007, on a frontage road off Interstate 55 near Channahon. Investigators had struggled to glean any specific information from Vaughn — the only survivor — about what had happened to his family during what was supposed to be a surprise trip to a Springfield water park.

~Snipped~

Vaughn's attorneys have blamed his wife, saying she was distraught over troubles in the marriage and killed the children, wounded Vaughn and then committed suicide. Vaughn had sustained minor gunshot wounds to his wrist and leg.

◆ Nicole Fundell, a forensic scientist with the Illinois State Police, testified that two bullet holes found in the jacket Christopher Vaughn wore on June 14, 2007, seemed to contradict what he said occurred that morning. She concluded that the jacket was actually wrapped around a gun when it was fired, possibly to muffle the sound or cushion the blow of the shot.

◆ Jurors watched Vaughn’s third videotaped interview with police, which took place on Fathers Day 2007. Police hoped the significance of the day would elicit an emotional response from Vaughn, but he never shed a single tear while talking about his children.

◆ FRIDAY: Forensic pathologist Larry Blum is among the witnesses who could testify.

A jacket worn by Christopher Vaughn on the day his wife and three children were fatally shot had bullet holes consistent with someone wrapping the jacket around a handgun and firing, a police firearms analyst testified today in Vaughn's murder trial.

Nicole Fundell of the Illinois State Police told jurors that Vaughn’s fleece jacket with a nylon liner had bullet holes in front and back as well as its left sleeve.

Holding up the black-and-tan garment in court, Fundell demonstrated how she believed the size and location of the holes indicated the jacket had been wrapped around a gun that was fired one time.

Dozens of detailed emails written by Christopher Vaughn to a friend he met on a social networking website depict a man planning to fake his own death and leave his wife and children behind for a new life in the Canadian wilderness.

The friend, Steve Willott of Ontario, Canada, read the lengthy messages aloud today in Will County court at Vaughn's trial on charges he killed his wife and three children in 2007. Willott said he and Vaughn talked about planning an extended camping trip in British Columbia or the Northwest Territories.

"I have been married for a long time and it was just really a few years ago I woke up and realized it was not going to work, and I did not want to be obligated to live this lifestyle until I am dead," Vaughn wrote in one email in February 2007, four months before the killings.

◆ Jurors heard the contents of a series of emails Vaughn had written to a Canadian man that detailed their plans to live in the Yukon wilderness and leave civilization behind. In the emails, Vaughn never mentions that he has children, but talks briefly about his failing marriage.

◆ Vaughn mentions faking his own death so his wife could receive his insurance money, he also mentions inviting a girl he met at a club along with him for the “long walk” into the wild.

◆ Stephen Willott of Canada said he is sure that Vaughn was serious about disappearing for good during the eight months the two were exchanging emails and making plans for their spring 2008 departure to the Yukon.

◆ Mary Wong, a forensic scientist with the Illinois State Police, said gunshot residue was found on Vaughn’s underwear waistband, his jacket and Kimberly Vaughn’s hands after the shootings that left Kimberly Vaughn and her three children dead. Wong, though, said the powder on Kimberly Vaughn’s hands doesn’t mean she shot the gun, but could have been in contact it or near it. And Wong allowed that firing a gun inside a car could spread gunshot residue all over the car.

Stephen Willott, a witness in the Christopher Vaughn trial, leaves the Will County Courthouse in Joliet, IL on Friday August 31, 2012. He is from near Ottawa, Ontario in Canada, and was the "Flea" to Vaughn's "Flint" in their correspondence online. | Matt Marton~Sun-Times Media.

If Christopher Vaughn did shoot his family in cold blood, his motive for doing so became clear to jurors on Friday as they read in detail about the Oswego man’s plans to ditch society and his life of obligations for a life in the Canadian wilderness with a man he met online.

~Snipped~

In the series of emails, which Willott read to jurors on Friday, Vaughn mentions a wife, but no children. Instead, the two spent nearly eight months making plans for their departure, which they planned for spring 2008.

As each day passed, Vaughn seemed to obsess more and more about leaving, unable to focus on much else.

“I don’t think I can wait until next year,” Vaughn wrote as he planned a May 2007 trip to Canada to scout the terrain. “The trip may change the timeline.”

Within a month of his return to the United States from that trip, Vaughn’s wife and three children were found shot to death in the family’s SUV.

At the end of Christopher Vaughn’s long, complicated trial for the murder of his family, jurors will have all sorts of evidence to sift through.

They’ve already seen bloody objects pulled from the inside of his family’s SUV. They’ve read incriminating emails from Vaughn, who planned to fake his death and disappear into the Canadian wilderness. Notes from his seemingly supportive spouse, meanwhile, talk about starting a new career while caring for her children.

But for much of last week, and nearly half of the trial since testimony began, prosecutors have played video of Vaughn’s interviews and interrogations by police hours after his family was found dead in their SUV. They portray at times a somewhat darker and more intense side of police work, the kind normally seen in movies and TV crime shows.

Not long before his 13th wedding anniversary, Christopher Vaughn sat down and wrote a love poem.

In it, he talked about “ancient souls,” “speechless conversation,” “shared closeness” and “hopeful dreams.” That letter, however, wasn’t meant for his wife. Instead, it was given to a former exotic dancer Vaughn had been fixated on in the weeks leading up to his alleged murder of his wife and three children in June 2007.

On Tuesday, Maya Drake testified that after meeting with Vaughn on several occasions in 2007 at a Chicago club, the Oswego man professed that he was going to leave his wife and move to Canada.

“He said she was going to get everything,” Drake testified. “He said she was going to get what she deserved. She wasn’t going to see it coming.”

During his time at the club, Drake said Vaughn never asked her to dance for him but did spend time with her talking in the club’s VIP room. Drake said the two talked about the outdoors and poetry — which Vaughn told her he wrote but often burned afterward. He mentioned his failing marriage but never his kids.

A forensic pathologist explained in cold, clinical detail Wednesday how the bullets that killed Christopher Vaughn’s family traveled through their bodies as they sat in their red Ford Expedition five years ago.

Prosecutors also showed the jury in Vaughn’s murder trial tightly cropped photos of the wounds on the dead bodies of Vaughn’s children as Dr. Larry Blum explained the family’s cause of death. He didn’t offer an opinion about the manner of their deaths — homicide, suicide or otherwise — but admitted to Vaughn’s defense attorney he couldn’t rule out suicide in the case of Vaughn’s 34-year-old wife, Kimberly.

Blum also said the amount of an anti-depressant found in Kimberly Vaughn’s body after her death bordered on toxic.

~Snipped~

Blum said Kimberly Vaughn was shot under her chin, pointing again to graphic photos viewed repeatedly by the jury of Vaughn’s wife dead in the passenger seat of the SUV. She would have been immediately incapacitated, Blum said, with death following “very shortly thereafter.”

Abigayle, who was seated behind the driver’s seat, was shot just below her right eyebrow and in her right lower chest. Cassandra, who sat between her siblings in the middle of the back seat, was shot in the middle of her forehead and in her chest. Blake, he said, was shot in the forehead and left underarm.

For two weeks, the courthouse in Joliet, Ill., has hosted an eerie spectacle—in adjoining courtrooms, Drew Peterson is on trial for allegedly murdering his third wife, and Christopher Vaughn for allegedly killing his family. Michael Daly reports.

This month’s annual NASCAR parade and Fan Rally comes just in time for Joliet, Ill.

After this week, there will likely be just one sensational murder trial at the local courthouse.

For a fortnight, the spectators who lined up at the courthouse each morning have had a choice of two courtroom dramas conducted just steps from each other.

In Courtroom 407, ex-cop Drew Peterson is now nearing a verdict on charges that he allegedly murdered his third wife, 40-year-old Kathleen Savio, by drowning her in a bathtub and staging it to look like an accident. Savio remains one of the most damaging witnesses against the 58-year-old defendant through a chilling letter she wrote to prosecutors before her death in March 2004. His fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, is also a witness in absentia through statements she made to her pastor and to her attorney before she vanished on Oct. 28, 2007. Drew Peterson is a prime suspect in her disappearance.

One door down, in Courtroom 406, former private investigator and wannabe wilderness survivalist Christopher Vaughn is on trial for allegedly shooting his wife, 34-year-old Kimberly, and three young children to death as they sat in the family’s red Ford Expedition in June 2007. Vaughn, 37, himself suffered two minor bullet wounds to his wrist and leg that police say were self-inflicted in an attempt to make it appear as if his wife shot him and the kids before turning the gun on herself.

~Snipped~

In another small-town twist, Sgt. Robert Deel of the Illinois State police was the primary crime scene investigator in both cases, though there is nothing clubby about this relationship with the prosecution. He is viewed as a hindrance, having expressed the view that the death of Peterson’s third wife was an accident and that Vaughn’s wife died by her own hand after she killed her children.

◆ Forensic pathologist Larry Blum testified in detail about how the bullets that killed Christopher Vaughn’s wife and three children traveled through their bodies. He didn’t offer an opinion about the manner of their deaths — homicide, suicide or otherwise — but admitted to Vaughn’s defense attorney he couldn’t rule out suicide in the case of Vaughn’s 34-year-old wife, Kimberly.

◆ On cross examination, Blum said Kimberly Vaughn’s toxicology report show she had the anti-seizure medicine Topamax and the anti-depressant drug Nortriptyline in her body when she died. The amount of Nortriptyline found in Kimberly’s system was just at toxic levels, Blum said. He said he believed it was part of her therapy for migraines.

◆ Prosecutors sought to undercut the idea that Kimberly Vaughn was suicidal and would kill her children, putting some of her friends on the witness stand to testify how much she loved her family. Friend Alyson Mals called her “the perfect mom” and said she “had the biggest heart in the world.”

◆ Lisa Calarese, a computer forensic analyst with the Illinois State Police who examined Christopher Vaughn’s personal laptop, testified that he had searched for a former stripper Maya Drake’s information online, locating addresses for Drake, including the Kentucky home she grew up in. Vaughn even located some of her family members, even though Drake testified last week she never gave him her full name or address.

◆ Forensic pathologist Larry Blum took the witness stand for the second day and once again said he couldn’t conclusively determine if Vaughn’s wife’s death was a suicide or homicide. He conceded to Vaughn’s defense attorney he couldn’t rule out suicide in the case of Kimberly Vaughn.

◆ After testifying Wednesday that Kimberly Vaughn’s toxicology report showed she had the antidepressant drug Nortriptyline in her body at toxic levels, Blum said Thursday the level readings can go up threefold after death. He also allowed the FDA has warned both the antidepressant and an anti-seizure medicine found in her body could cause suicidal thoughts.

JOLIET, Ill. (AP) — A forensic pathologist testified the antidepressant drug Nortriptyline was found at toxic levels in the wife the man accused of killing her and their three children.

However, Larry Blum said Thursday the level readings can go up threefold after death. He also noted the Food and Drug Administration has said the antidepressant and an anti-seizure medicine found in her body could cause suicidal thoughts.

~Snipped~

Blum conceded to Vaughn's defense attorney he couldn't rule out suicide in the case of Kimberly Vaughn.

Christopher Vaughn traveled to Canada to scout out life there, jurors told

By Jason Meisner, Chicago Tribune reporterSeptember 7, 2012

Kimberly Vaughn was busy raising three children, trying to complete a criminal justice degree and doing volunteer work in May 2007 when she mentioned to a friend that her husband, Christopher, was going on yet another work-related trip.

"Chris is off to Canada this week. ... The kids are busy with school. Thank goodness it is almost over," she wrote about her schoolwork in an email found on her computer.

But Christopher Vaughn wasn't on a business trip, according to Will County prosecutors. Hundreds of documents found on his laptop and shown to jurors in his murder trial Thursday showed he actually was in the far reaches of the Canadian wilderness, scouting the area where he allegedly planned to start a new life on his own.

Testimony has resumed in the Christopher Vaughn murder trial, with several investigators testifying about evidence they found at the scene where his wife and children were found dead and the family home.

On Thursday, Lisa Calarese, a computer forensic analyst with the Illinois State Police who examined Vaughn’s personal laptop, testified that Vaughn had searched for ex-stripper Maya Drake’s information online, and even located family members of the dancer. Drake testified last week that she never gave Vaughn her full name, and thought he had hacked into her personal computer.

When a wounded Christopher Vaughn flagged down a passing motorist the morning his family was killed in their SUV in June 2007, his fleece jacket had his wife's blood on it in addition to his own, according to testimony Friday in his quadruple murder trial in Joliet.

The forensic evidence appeared to contradict Vaughn's defense that it was his wife, Kimberly, who shot and wounded him, killed their three children as they slept in the back seat and then committed suicide.

In the days after the shocking killings, the Oswego father had told police that he had bailed out of the Ford Expedition immediately after his wife shot him.

Will County prosecutors are expected to raise questions with jurors about how Kimberly Vaughn's blood could end up on her husband's jacket if his account was true.

◆ Judge Daniel Rozak told jurors that he expects prosecutors could rest their case late Tuesday. He said jurors have seen nearly 80 witnesses in three weeks, a pace in stark contrast to the Drew Peterson trial held in the courtroom next door.

◆ Blood evidence introduced Friday showed Christopher Vaughn’s blood in several places throughout the SUV where his family was found killed. Most telling was that Kimberly Vaughn’s blood was found on Vaughn’s jacket, even though he has claimed he was nowhere near the vehicle when his wife was shot.

◆ Early Friday, Illinois State Police troopers explained how they executed a search warrant on the Vaughn home, collecting live rounds, a gun case and other evidence from Christopher Vaughn’s closet. Medicine prescribed to Kimberly Vaughn was also taken from the home’s master bathroom.

◆ A piece of flesh that was found in a mysterious bullet hole on the back of Christopher Vaughn’s jacket was tested, and experts told jurors the skin matched the DNA of Christopher Vaughn. No wound was ever found on Vaughn’s torso, leading experts to speculate the gun was wrapped in the coat when the shot was fired.

After three weeks of hearing testimony from nearly 80 witnesses, jurors deciding the fate of Christopher Vaughn could see “light at the end of the tunnel,” as soon as Tuesday, Judge Daniel Rozak told them Friday.

“This is almost unheard of,” Rozak said of the pace of the trial, which is moving exponentially faster than the Drew Peterson trial that was held in the courtroom next door.

• Forensic consultant Matthew Noedel analyzed for jurors the evidence about gunshots fired in Christopher Vaughn’s SUV when his wife and children were fatally shot and he was wounded. Noedel said the evidence did not match Vaughn’s story that his wife shot him before killing her children and then herself.

• Pam Glueck of Navigant Consulting of Chicago, Vaughn’s former employer, said Vaughn logged as vacation time an alleged May 2007 trip to Canada to scout potential places to disappear into the Yukon wilderness.

• Mary Halvorson, a legal analyst for Ameriprise Financial Bank, said Vaughn signed paperwork to collect on his wife’s $1 million life insurance policy eight days after his family was killed.

Vaughn trial: Ballistics expert discounts suicide by Kimberly VaughnChristopher Vaughn leaves Will County Courthouse in Joliet in June before he went on trial. (Zbigniew Bzdak, Chicago Tribune / June 6, 2012)

prosecution forensics expert on Monday disputed Christopher Vaughn's account of the day he says his wife shot him, killed their three children and then killed herself inside the family SUV, providing the most thorough deconstruction of the Oswego man's version of events to date as his murder trial entered its fourth week.

Ballistics and blood-spatter expert Matthew Noedel analyzed everything from the interior of the Vaughns' Ford Expedition to the stains on Christopher Vaughn's jeans and the holes in his jacket as Will County prosecutors appeared to be winding down their case.

Noedel, a Washington state-based forensic consultant, testified that the pistol Kimberly Vaughn allegedly pressed beneath her chin to commit suicide, as well as her trigger hand, did not show a pattern of blood droplets typical of a self-inflicted wound, while gunpowder burns on Christopher Vaughn's jacket and jeans seemed to show the pistol had been pressed against his leg and jacket.

Powder burns on the faces of Christopher Vaughn's children show they were shot from only a foot away, an expert witness said.

By Joseph HoseySeptember 10, 20128:04 pm

Christopher Vaughn's children pushed back into the seat of a Ford Excursion as their killer stuck a pistol in their faces and shot them one after the other, a ballistics expert testified Monday.

"Each child had about a two- or three-inch-diameter stippling pattern" on their faces, ballistics expert Matthew Lee Noedel said. The size of the powder burns on the faces of the children showed they had been shot from about a foot away, he said.

◆ Blood stain pattern analyst Paul Kish testified Kimberly Vaughn was shot to death before Christopher Vaughn was wounded, contradicting Vaughn’s version of the shootings that left his family dead on June 14, 2007. Kish said his conclusion was based on the “facts of the case,” leading Vaughn’s defense attorneys to object and ask for a mistrial. Judge Daniel Rozak denied the request.

◆ Ballistics expert Matthew Noedel testified it was possible for someone to reach around Kimberly Vaughn as she sat in the passenger seat of the family SUV and shoot into the back seat where the children were killed. Someone doing so would still be able to reach close enough to cause the close-range injuries investigators found on the children’s bodies.

◆ Kish testified that Christopher Vaughn’s statement to police about how the shooting occurred did not match up blood evidence he examined in this case. Vaughn’s blood was found on Kimberly’s seatbelt, on the side of her shorts and in the floor area between her feet. Kimberly’s blood was also found on Christopher’s jacket. He claims he was out of the vehicle when she was shot.

◆ Wednesday: Prosecutors expect to rest their case. Defense attorneys then will likely call their own ballistics expert to testify.

September 11, 2012 (JOLIET, Ill.) -- A Will County judge hearing the case of a man accused of killing his family rejected a defense attorney's request for a mistrial.

Blood splatter expert Paul Kish testified Tuesday that based on blood evidence found at the scene, Kimberly Vaughn was shot before her husband. He said the woman's body was immobile when Christopher Vaughn's blood dripped on her.

Prosecutors in the Christopher Vaughn quadruple murder trial rested their case Wednesday after calling some 80 witnesses over four weeks, including forensic experts, family of the victims and two strippers Vaughn frequented before he allegedly gunned down his family.

Vaughn is charged with the 2007 slayings of his wife, Kimberly, and their three children inside the Oswego family's vehicle. All four were shot at close range after Vaughn stopped on a frontage road near Channahon on the way to what he said was a visit to a Springfield water park.

His defense is expected to be that Kimberly, distraught over her husband's cheating and because she was taking medication linked to violent or suicidal behavior, shot their children, tried to kill her husband and then killed herself.